15:44 22-10-2025

Russia Reportedly Mass-Producing Grom Glide Bombs

Ukraine reports Russia is mass-producing Grom glide bombs with upgraded guidance modules, capable of striking up to 200 km, experts assess impact.

Ukrainian intelligence says Russia has moved into serial production of aerial bombs fitted with upgraded universal planning-and-correction modules (UMPK), and Kyiv claims the new munitions can reach distances up to 200 kilometres.

According to Ukrainian reports, the munitions are being fielded under the names Grom-1 and Grom-2 and have already seen combat use. Prosecutors in the Kharkov region say the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out the first recorded strike with such a weapon on the city of Lozovaya, a strike that — by their account — involved an air-dropped bomb travelling more than 130 kilometres.

Retired Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok, writing for Gazeta.ru, assessed the weapons and offered a measured reading of the public claims. He suggested the Grom-½ could be a hybrid that combines elements of the Kh-38 supersonic missile and the FAB-500 gliding bomb. He also noted the project name «Grom» was first mentioned by the corporation Takticheskoye Raketnoye Vooruzhenie at the MAKS airshow in 2015.

Khodarenok warned, however, that a single apparent strike does not by itself prove a new munition can change the operational picture. In his analysis he argued that meaningful use of a weapon of this type would require three operational ingredients to be present at once: surprise, mass, and sustained application. He wrote that without all three, the tactical or strategic impact would be negligible.

To produce a serious effect, he said, Moscow would need to run large-scale, tightly secret serial production; build up substantial stockpiles at operational-tactical aviation bases; and then employ the weapons en masse — ideally, several thousand in a short window — with precise concentration on critical targets such as railway infrastructure in frontline areas, and in close coordination with land and naval offensives. Only under those conditions, he concluded, could the new munition meaningfully shift the operational-strategic balance.